Boys Lacrosse: Rambo repeats as Player of Year

SPRINGFIELD - Matt Rambo’s senior season as a La Salle High lacrosse player began and ended on the artificial surface of Hersheypark Stadium.

It began with the Explorers licking their collective wounds after losing in the 2012 state lacrosse final to Conestoga and ended with Rambo and La Salle celebrating the 2013 state title with a convincing, 13-4 win over that same Conestoga squad, a contest in which Rambo led all scorers with four goals.

In between, Rambo and the Explorers meant business - and they took few prisoners.

“We got right back into it,” Rambo said. “(The state-final loss) was something like June 7, and we were right back and playing in July in a shoot-out on July 20-something.

“Everyone had a chip on their shoulder, everyone was (hissed) off. They wanted it.”

La Salle was determined it was not going to be denied this year, and the Explorers were not.

And at the forefront was Rambo, the All-Everything attack with the wicked shot who shook off trivialities such as a broken ankle to help hand La Salle the fourth lacrosse state championship in its rich history. At the forefront was Rambo, whose brilliant senior season earned him his second successive Times Herald Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year award.

This season’s state crown all began, Rambo said, with a willingness to work hard and sacrifice.

“We all wanted it,” the now-Explorers graduate said. “The 16 or whatever seniors wanted it, the juniors wanted it and even the freshmen wanted it.

“When we started Fall workouts, if you weren’t there you needed a legitimate excuse.”

Rambo was not there and had a more-than-legitimate excuse - a broken ankle.

“It happened the day after Thanksgiving, walking home from the Thanksgiving football game,” Rambo said. “I was jumping onto a curb and my shoes didn’t have much support.”

It turned out to be a hairline fracture and the senior was back to normal in a little more than a month.

“The doctors put me in an aircast and I was fine,” Rambo said. “It wasn’t a big deal at all.”

And the work continued.“The winter was spent preparing for spring,” Rambo said. “When spring came around, you better be in shape.

“We had good guys on our team, but practice was competitive. I mean, we had fights, Whoever was the best player would play, and it didn’t matter if you had a Division One scholarship (the Explorers had 14 players with D-1 scholarships entering the season). If you were going to a D-1 school to play lacrosse, that was something you were going to do next year. This year you were still a La Salle player and you had to earn your spot.”

Under head coach Bill Leahy, La Salle’s mission was to prepare for the season, beginning with winning the Philadelphia Catholic League championship.

“We really didn’t change much,” Rambo said. “The whole season was about setting goals and working toward them. And our first goal was always winning the Catholic League.”

The preseason expectations for the Explorers were through the roof. But early on, in the team’s third game to be exact, the Explorers learned a valuable lesson.

“We were coming off a win over a nationally ranked team (Garden City),” Rambo said, “and we were playing Episcopal Academy.

“I’m not going to take anything away from them, they played better than us all over the field. But you can tell how you’re going to play in a game by the warm-up, and we just came out flat.

“The bus ride to the game was a joke, we were terrible in warm-up, no one was ready to play that game.”

The result was an 8-2 Episcopal win.

“That was a great loss,” Rambo said, “because we saw what we did (in the loss) and we never did it again.”

In fact, after a 10-5 loss to Baltimore’s Gilman School in their follow-up to the Episcopal setback, the Explorers would not lose again.

Meanwhile, the view for Rambo rarely changed. In virtually every game, opposition defenses faceguarded, double-teamed or went to any extreme to take the high-scoring attackman out of the game.“I’d say about 70 percent of the teams we played faceguarded me,” he said. “It didn’t bother me, I was used to it, and it was mostly a plus for us. If we were able to get a pick and the defender didn’t switch, then most of the time it meant a goal for us.”

La Salle even practiced assuming a Rambo faceguard.

“If we were playing a team we knew would faceguard or double me, I wasn’t allowed to shoot in practice,” Rambo said. “So I worked on my passing. I wasn’t even allowed to shoot. If I did I had to run a lap.”

But did that stop the man with one of the most devastating shots around?

“No,” Rambo said with a laugh. “If I was open I’d shoot.”

While the Explorers compiled victories, Rambo remained unimpressed.

“I know a lot of people will disagree with me,” he said, “but I don’t consider any regular-season win to be a highlight.

“For me the first highlight of the season was winning the Catholic League (which La Salle did by topping St. Joseph’s Prep, 11-6, with Rambo scoring three of his four goals in the pull-away fourth quarter), and then it was beating Radnor (6-4, in the opening round of the state playoffs), who I thought were the best team in (District One).”

The La Salle postseason run made its final stop in Hershey, where an unexpected foe awaited them.

Defending champion Conestoga was not supposed to have enough returning talent to reach another state-title game. But Rambo was not surprised to see them as the Explorers’ final foe.

“I know (Conestoga head coach) Brian Samson, and he’s a great coach,” Rambo said. “So them going back to the state final wasn’t a shock to me.”

Finally, where they had spent their entire season trying to get to, the Explorers were bouncing off the locker room walls.

“We were fired up,” Rambo said. “We had the music cranked up and we were fired up.

“You can’t go into a state-championship game calm. I know I was anxious. I wanted to play, I wanted to get it done. We were mentally and physically ready to play, we were there to get a job done, not joke around.”

It was never a contest.The Explorers streaked to a 6-0 start, then rolled to the easy win.

It was a perfect cap to a great career, but Rambo has still only seen the game live.

“It was a high-intense game,” he said, “but I haven’t had the time to watch it, but it was the best highlight of the year.”

Since, Rambo has, indeed, been busy.

He set a record, scoring eight times in the prestigious Under Armour All-American game earlier this month.

“That was a lot of fun,” he said. “Our coaches told us we were going to have fun. Our practices were fun. And then things went my way in the game. My shot was on that day.”

Rambo relaxed during Senior Week, but has continued to play lacrosse on both a men’s team and for the La Salle alumni team.

When interviewed for this story, Rambo was at his future home, the University of Maryland, getting a head start on his college career by taking an early class.

“I’ll be back (in late July) and go the beach with my family,” he said, “and enjoy my last summer as a high school kid.”

His high school career over, Rambo said it was necessary to thank everyone who had helped him get to where he was.

“My dad was a huge part of it,” he said, “I want to thank Randy McNeill (his coach at Abington, where he spent his freshman scholastic season), all my coaches at La Salle and especially my brother Rich, who’s playing now at Rutgers. He’s always looked out for me, always had my back. He used to take me to play (lacrosse) with his friends when he was in ninth grade and I was in sixth. And the cool thing, he didn’t force me to go. But it was great hanging out with the older kids, watching them and getting better.

“He’s proud of what I’ve accomplished and he’s excited for me, just like I’m excited for him.

“I’ve always been self-motivated, but it’s always great having someone in your corner, just pushing you to be better.”